Took my oldest son (8 years) out for his first fishing lessons. Bought a 9' Sevylor Fish Hunter raft on Saturday so we brought that out as well. Filled 'er up and got on the lake about 7:00. We launched at the swimming area and cast our Rappala floating minnows around there and then to the north, but nothing seemed terribly interested. Around 11:00 we went around the boat launch (since that's were most of the reports claim to find fish) and finally managed to get a few bites. (Brown Trout Rappala). Brought the first one in, it was about 6" or 7", barely able to be called a fish, but my son was pretty excited. Next cast out, got another one on and gave the pole to my son to bring in. It too was only about 7", but he was happy to reel it in. Had a few more bites, but missed setting the hook. The boy hooked into one but it spit out the lure a few feet from the boat, it too being only about 6" or so. I'd say that within the course of 30 minutes, we had landed 2 and missed about another 5, all very small bass.

It's close to our house, so we'll certainly be back. I'm going to try to pickup a small trolling motor for the raft so we can head further out. Oaring that boat for 6 hours wasn't a lot of fun. Yeah, and an anchor would help too! Fun little lake, not very crowded either..

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